Movie review: ‘Burning’ casts a scorching spell

Al Alexander More Content Now

Wednesday

Nov 14, 2018 at 1:31 PMNov 14, 2018 at 1:31 PM

I didn’t think it possible for a movie to perform hypnosis. But that was before being beguiled by Lee Chang-dong’s mesmerizing thriller, “Burning.” True to its title, it sears into the mind, leaving an indelible impression about modern-day South Korea and the alienated youth of a nation where the want to be a crazy rich Asian tops all desires.

It’s also a story of vengeance rooted in the writings of William Faulkner, whose short story on retribution and caste, “Barn Burning,” was the inspiration for the film’s source material: Haruki Murakami’s 1992 short story of the same name. What Lee (“Poetry”) has done with it in his masterful adaptation is astounding in both its artistry and its content, working on numerous levels fronted by a love triangle between a poor farm boy, a free-spirited young woman and a suave richie-rich who lists his profession as “player.”

It begins with the agrarian, Jong-su (Ah-in Yoo), having a chance encounter with long-lost schoolmate, Hai-me (stunning newcomer Jeon Jong-seo), who he once called ugly but who now entrances him with her exceptional beauty and seductive charm. They catch up on old times before winding up naked in her tiny bed in her even tinier hole-in-the-wall apartment in Seoul. Now worldly, Hai-me captivates the naive Jong-su with her philosophies, including a love for pantomime she demonstrates by pretending to eat a tangerine. The trick, she says, is not pretending she’s eating it, but forgetting there “isn’t” a tangerine.

Remember that grasshopper because that illusion will recur throughout a story that grows more tantalizingly enigmatic as it progresses, particularly after Steven Yeun’s older, sophisticated Ben enters the picture in the $100,000 Porsche Carrera he parks beneath the swank condo he owns in Seoul’s exclusive Gangnam neighborhood. How is a farm boy from Paju supposed to compete with that in pursuit of Hai-me’s heart? He can’t, which only increases a jealousy that blossoms into an obsession for the woman he desires but feels he cannot have because of his measly means.

And what are we to make of Hai-me’s motives? Why does she keep inviting Jong-su along on her dates with Ben? Is it a taunt to make him take a stand by declaring his love for her? Or, is it something more nefarious, like a way to get even for having called her “ugly” when she was a child? It’s just one of the many riddles Lee leaves for us to solve. And it only gets more intriguing when one of the three suddenly disappears without a trace, playing back on Hai-me’s not pretending what isn’t there, but forgetting what isn’t.

Yes, it’s a total mindf--- that twists you in all sorts of knots. And just when you think you’ve got it figured out — BAM! — you don’t. Then there’s that title, “Burning.” What’s that all about? Is it Jong-su’s insatiable desire for Hai-me? Or, is it the allusions to arson, and what Ben tells Jong-su about the thrill he gets from lighting greenhouses on fire, assuming he’s telling the truth?

Lee offers you no easy answers; making you work at getting everything you glean out of his deft homage to Hitchcock’s “Vertigo.” I swear there were times when the suspense got so intense I forgot to breathe. And it never lets up, even after the film’s shocking final scene. You’ll be thinking about it for days, unable — and unwilling — to break “Burning’s” scorching spell.